Computer system curious question [Archive]

Artman

Mar23-04, 09:42 PM

Originally posted by Zantra
Intel P4 2.6 ghz
512 Ram-pc2100rdr(need 1GB really)
17" CRT(flat screens suck for high FPS games.. hehe)
40 GB HD, adding another 100 shortly.
50X38X50 CDR
Radeon 9800 vid w/128 VRAM
wireless mouse/keyboard.
Dual Boot XP/Linux redhat

next PC will be alienware- just because

www.alienware.com

I recently upgraded this though, from a PII 350 MHZ, because I was tired of being embarassed to tell people that my computer wasn't even from this decade [o)]

Hey Zantra, very nice system. Is your P4 one of the Hyper-Threading models? I'm thinking about upgrading my Motherboard and I want to get one that supports HT (not that I can afford a CPU that has it [g)]). That is part of my reason for this survey. I want to know where I currently fall in real world technology level. I know about where I am in relation to what is available (about 5 or 6 years out of date with a low end CPU).

kawikdx225 decent overclock. Sounds like it is still a pretty hot system.

Maxwell

Mar24-04, 12:20 AM

AMD Athlon 1800 (Roughly 1.5 ghz)
1 GB of RAM
2 80 gb HD's
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb graphics card

I play a lot of games. I could use a faster speed of RAM (currently PC2100).

ShawnD

Mar24-04, 03:34 AM

Athlon 2500+
1GB RAM (PC2100)
ASUS A7N8X-X (nForce2)
60GB HDD (5400RPM)
Radeon 9600XT
52x CD-rw
Sound Blaster Live 5.1

Pergatory

Mar24-04, 12:59 PM

AOpen AX4SPE-N motherboard (P4 3.0GHz Northwood)
512mb DDR400 Mushkin (2-5-2-2) RAM
Asus V9280S/TVD 128mb GeForce4 Ti4200 (overclocked)
Seagate Barracuda ATA V 120GB
Seagate Barracuda ATA IV 40GB
Teac 50x24x24 CDRW
Enermax silent power supply
Zalman silent CPU heatsink
Lian Li PC60 case
Logitech cordless/optical mouse
Dual 17" CRT's

Monique

Mar24-04, 01:19 PM

Oh, the smell of testosterone in here [;)] I don't have 1 Gb RAM, I wouldn't know what to do with it :P

My specs:
AMD athlon 2500+
1.86 GHz clockspeed
512 Mb DDR
40 Gb HD
32 Mb shared video
15" TFT XGA
Li-ion battery
and the best of all DVD/CDRW combo ;)

Artman

Mar24-04, 02:25 PM

Originally posted by Monique
Oh, the smell of testosterone in here...

Welcome to this cigar-smoke-filled-poker-game-room post.

One of my interests in this survey was to see if any women joined in. Interesting that you should enter with the above quote Monique. Nice computer system, by-the-way.

To others out there, if you are viewing this thread and thinking, "Don't know, don't care," or more general comments such as "it's slow, but it's fast enough for me," or "I'm not sure it's a Dell model such and such," post those too. Or even how old it is.

Pergatory, ShawnD, Maxwell, Monique Thanks, great systems. Did you build them yourself?

Monique

Mar24-04, 02:32 PM

*dodges a passing cloud of cigar smoke* I actually did quite a bit of research, finding out what kind of specs I wanted.. but I guess building a notebook is a little out of my reach.. anyone's reach for that matter ;P

Artman

Mar24-04, 02:59 PM

Originally posted by Monique
*dodges a passing cloud of cigar smoke* I actually did quite a bit of research, finding out what kind of specs I wanted.. but I guess building a notebook is a little out of my reach.. anyone's reach for that matter ;P

Yup. Totally different animal. Those are great specs for a notebook.

I was afraid this was going to get moved here. I wanted a more general overview not just the computer types. Oh well.

ShawnD

Mar24-04, 05:23 PM

Yes I built my own.

dduardo

Mar24-04, 06:14 PM

1.4GHz AMD Thunderbird
512 MB DDR
2 x 60 Gig HD
Geforce 3
19 inch Viewsonic GS790
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Microsoft Explorer USB Mouse
16x CDRW
DVD
Floppy

Harddrive A

10 Gig Windows XP (NTFS)
50 Gig Gentoo Linux (Resier v3)

Harddrive B
60 Gig Linux Backup (ext3)

--------------------

Btw, Hewlett Packard now sells Linux desktops and laptops. You can choose from Redhat, Mandrake or SUSE.

You can even buy a linux machine from Walmart.

russ_watters

Mar25-04, 12:48 AM

[homebuilt - I don't ever plan on buying a pre-built machine again]
Athlon XP 2500+ (overclocked to impress Monique)
1GB ddr sdram @ 360mhz
2x WD SE 120GB drives (raid 1 - striping)
Epox 8rda Nforce2 motherboard
ATI All-in-Wonder 9700pro
Lite-on 4x dual format dvd burner
21" used monitor (don't ever buy a new monitor)

I also own a Compaq Presario P3 750 laptop. Nice machine except it has poorly designed display hinges that fail due to metal fatigue.
[b(]

Artman

Mar25-04, 11:10 AM

Originally posted by russ_watters
...(overclocked to impress Monique)

Did it? [?] [:)]

Originally posted by russ_watters
21" used monitor (don't ever buy a new monitor) [b(]

Someone has to, right? [:)]

Hot system Russ. I'm currently researching the P4 HT motherboards I want to build my next computer.

dduardo, I should have guessed you were a Linux guy. The penquin avatar should have tipped me off. [:)] Nice system.

Dagenais

Mar27-04, 07:49 PM

specifications of your fastest home computer?

3.00GHz Intel P4 w/ HT Technology
512MB DDR SDRAM
160GB Hard Drive
DVD+RW/CD-RW/CD-R 48x
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 128DDR Memory

Tons of high-speed USB/FireWire ports, nice altec-lansing satellite speakers, logitech webcam, optikal mouse, 17" Viewsonic LCD, Logitech Gamepad, 1 photosmart printer, 1 office jet printer/fax/phone/scanner/photo copy machine.

Not bad, eh? ;)

Integral

Mar28-04, 03:40 AM

I am running a AMD xp2000+ (1.7Ghz) 256Mb Ram on a Gigabyte mobo,Via kt400 chipset, Gainward GF4 Ti4200 Ultra, 80Gb Hd.

Build my own, this is one of 4, 3 xp2000, 1 1.2Gb Tbird, all in viakt400 mobos, 2 systems have a FX5600 Video Cards, one a poor old GF2. (I retired 2 TnT2 M64 boards this winter.

Build my own. have been since 1992, so I am kind of BYO pioneer. I started with a 286, The black tower case that I put a 286 board in is still running, in now has a AMD k62 450mhz, my mom ran this for several years now my brother has it. That case is going on 14yrs of use.

Artman

Mar28-04, 08:37 PM

3.00GHz Intel P4 w/ HT Technology
512MB DDR SDRAM
160GB Hard Drive
DVD+RW/CD-RW/CD-R 48x
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 128DDR Memory

Tons of high-speed USB/FireWire ports, nice altec-lansing satellite speakers, logitech webcam, optikal mouse, 17" Viewsonic LCD, Logitech Gamepad, 1 photosmart printer, 1 office jet printer/fax/phone/scanner/photo copy machine.

Not bad, eh? ;)

Screaming system Dagenais.

Integral, It doesn't surprise me a bit that you have been building your own computers for a while. I've upgraded just about everything, HDs, memory, Video card, Sound card, CPUs, but never did a motherboard or a complete build yet. I see that you are an AMD man. With some of the P4 advancements such as 800 bus speed and HT, what are your thoughts on Intel, at this point in time? Looks like you have a pretty hot AMD setup.

hitssquad

Apr1-04, 01:19 AM

Guybrush Threepwood

Apr1-04, 01:39 AM

What are the specifications of your fastest home computer?

Celeron 433MHz, 320 MB RAM, 20GB HDD, integrated video .... :rolleyes:

Integral

Apr1-04, 02:43 AM

Screaming system Dagenais.

Integral, It doesn't surprise me a bit that you have been building your own computers for a while. I've upgraded just about everything, HDs, memory, Video card, Sound card, CPUs, but never did a motherboard or a complete build yet. I see that you are an AMD man. With some of the P4 advancements such as 800 bus speed and HT, what are your thoughts on Intel, at this point in time? Looks like you have a pretty hot AMD setup.

The main reason I am running AMD processors is that I am cheap. I simply cannot understand why I should pay more for less performance. That said I would love to build a P4 system :).

As it is my systems are way over powered for the use they get. I am having trouble justifying upgrading just for the fun of building a computer.

Take the plunge, building a system from scratch is getting easier and easier, it can be very rewarding when it is all working. Needless to say there can also be periods of extreme frustration!

kronchev

Apr1-04, 11:57 AM

AMD XP-Mobile 2400+ at 2.5 ghz, 1.825 volts, 12.5x200
1 gig PC2700 @ 166 mhz (Not kind to overclocking)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Powercolor Radeon 9800SE softmodded to 9800Pro
2x80 gig 7200 RPM ATA100 drives
Dangerden-based watercooling

Obviously I need to upgrade my RAM and the drives but everything else kicks the crap out of most other computers

Artman

Apr2-04, 07:36 PM

Dell 4100 laptop. 1.066 MHz PIII Tualatin Celeron (256 KB backside cache). 1 GB RAM at 133 MHz. 18.6 GB 4200-RPM 2.5" 2-platter hard drive. ATI display adapter (16 MB non-shared video RAM). 14" XGA (1024 x 768) screen. Synaptics trackpad.

I'm using ClearType, so my horizontal resolution for text display is actually 3072 addressable pixels (3 x 1024). This lets me use smaller font sizes, as if my total resolution was greater than it is. I also compensate for the limited resolution by minimizing my scrollbar size and instead scrolling with the Synaptics trackpad scroll-function; by using the F11 fullscreen mode a lot; and by using the keybindings (shortcut keys) to flip between windows and applications (so I can keep each window at full size, hence maximally using my XGA screen's resolution).

Nicely configured. I bet it works very well for you set up like that. At work I set up my start bar to disapear unless I drop the cursor down to keep my desktop as clear as I can. The PIII CPU's perform very well, I think. My Coppermine Celeron 1.1 benchmarks like a 1.4Ghz P-4 (except for cache intensive stuff.).

Celeron 433MHz, 320 MB RAM, 20GB HDD, integrated video ....

That is an ideal system for a workstation computer. Fast enough for productivity, and the integrated video doesn't matter for that. I had a 566 Celeron. It was pretty fast and you could overclock the hell out of it (I had it up to about 700Ghz). I bought the 1.1Ghz Celeron and a Voodoo 4500 PCI graphics card (no AGP slot. I bought the Voodoo card before 3dfx went belly up. It's not bad at all for PCI.) I wanted the graphics card to do 2d artworks with a painting program (but now I also play games with it. :biggrin: )

Take the plunge, building a system from scratch is getting easier and easier, it can be very rewarding when it is all working. Needless to say there can also be periods of extreme frustration!

I really do want to try it, but...

As it is my systems are way over powered for the use they get. I am having trouble justifying upgrading just for the fun of building a computer.

My wife thinks ours is also and we haven't much spare income at present. Although I have the entire project down to about $150.00 using some existing components, that's still too much for us right now.

...but everything else kicks the crap out of most other computers

I'll bet it does!
You listed your CPU as a mobil, but with the watercooling, I assume it's in a desktop or tower. Do you find the mobil CPU handles the heat a little better while overclocking, or wasn't that a concern since you have the watercooling?

MikeH

Apr6-04, 04:48 PM

Athlon 2800+ (2.09 ghz)
1 gb dual channel pc3200 ram
Asus a7x8n-e mobo
Geforce FX5600 256mb
120gb harddrive
CD-RW, CD-Rom

Artman

Apr8-04, 09:25 AM

Athlon 2800+ (2.09 ghz)
1 gb dual channel pc3200 ram
Asus a7x8n-e mobo
Geforce FX5600 256mb
120gb harddrive
CD-RW, CD-Rom

Very nice MikeH. I bet you get some great frame rates with that setup (it sounds like a kickbutt gaming computer).

Memnoch

Apr12-04, 03:56 PM

Artman

Apr12-04, 09:22 PM

AMD64 3200+ (2.2 ghz)
1 Gig Corsair XMS DDR400
MSI FIS2R MB
OS Drive= 40 Gig Seagate
Storage1= 80 Gig Seagate
Storage2= Dual 250GB Western Digital SATA drives Raided (500 Gigs)
GeForce 4 ti4600
Hercules Game Theater XP
Plextor PX-712A DVDR-CDRW drive

I really should upgrade my video soon.
-=|peace|=-

State of the art stuff there Memnoch (even the video card is not that far out compared to my Voodoo :redface: .)

Well, I went ahead and bought some upgrade stuff, (keep in mind I always do cheap. :smile: ) I got a Soyo P4X400 478 Mobo, a Celeron 2.6 CPU and fan, 256 MB DDR 266 RAM an PNY 8X AGP 64mb card (not the fastest, but I'm not a big gamer) and a new case. Here is the kicker, I got all of that for around $200.00 including shipping. :biggrin: Nearly half price for everything.

Memnoch

Apr12-04, 10:35 PM

Ahhh, Voodoo's ROCK. I still have my VooDoo5500 around here somewhere. Such a stable beast and great for Overclocking :)
Nothing beats those Dual Procs. heh Works great in Linux too. :)

Artman

Apr13-04, 08:30 AM

Ahhh, Voodoo's ROCK. I still have my VooDoo5500 around here somewhere. Such a stable beast and great for Overclocking :)
Nothing beats those Dual Procs. heh Works great in Linux too. :)

My Voodoo 4500 is actually quite good compared to other PCI cards, but alas, it is just PCI.

dduardo

Apr13-04, 11:43 AM

Voodoo was the Geforce of the late 90's. I had two voodoo 2's hooked up together in what they called SLI mode. I had killer framerates with Doom 2.

Memnoch

Apr14-04, 05:39 AM

Ah NICE.
I was actually able to run Serious Sam: THe Second Encounter pretty well off my SLI'd Voodoo2's. I use to be a major Voodoo freak a few years ago. You can still find awesome drivers at www.voodoofiles.com. I believe I had 24fps on Serious Sam with 800X600 res and 15-20 on Q3A. Old Celeron 500 with 512 dual boot with Mandrake ran it well. heh

ShawnD

Apr14-04, 12:42 PM

Athlon 2500+
1GB RAM (PC2100)
ASUS A7N8X-X (nForce2)
60GB HDD (5400RPM)
Radeon 9600XT
52x CD-rw
Sound Blaster Live 5.1

Update: I've overclocked the CPU to 2.32ghz which makes it faster than a 3200+
Right on :wink:

kronchev

Apr22-04, 10:05 AM

I'll bet it does!
You listed your CPU as a mobil, but with the watercooling, I assume it's in a desktop or tower. Do you find the mobil CPU handles the heat a little better while overclocking, or wasn't that a concern since you have the watercooling?

Well, yes. It has a default voltage of 1.45v so I could get higher speeds at a lower voltage than with a regular 2400+. Heat however isnt an issue, I believe I'm 10C above ambient, thats a lot (to me, I'm a little too insane :D) but since its 10C if I'm OC'd or not, that speaks highly of watercooling ;) I got screwed on this chip however, I just Prime95 torture tested it again and it nearly immediatly failed, so I had to clock it down to 2.4. People I know are getting 2.8 at my voltage, 3.0 at 2.1v, with other chips. I'm thinking about selling this to my friend whose going to put it in his carputer (he'll be underclocking it in any case) and buying a guaranteed good chip from a company that specializes in picking out these things.

Oh well, I still have the fastest here ;) Gotta get that RAM however...

hitssquad

Apr22-04, 07:35 PM

I'm thinking about ... buying a guaranteed good chip from a company that specializes in picking out these things.What company or companies are those?

Gotta get that RAM however...Mushkin (http://www.mushkin.com) is supposed to make excellent RAM.

ShawnD

Apr22-04, 08:27 PM

All RAM is basically the same unless you are thinking about overclocking it.

Artman

Apr29-04, 06:35 PM

Here's an update on my computer building project.

I had to get a new harddrive the one I had in an older computer just wasn't recognized by the new motherboard (I played with the jumper settings and tried it in another computer, neither detected it.) So I ordered a new one, put it in, installed Windows XP and it all works.

So now I have:
Soyo P4X400 478 Mobo
Celeron 2.7 CPU (I only ordered a 2.6, but they sent a 2.7) :smile:
256 MB DDR 266 RAM
PNY 8X AGP 64mb card (works great with my painting program)
60 Gig Maxtor, 7200rpm, 133 ATA, HD
Windows XP

I find I don't like XP. It doesn't work with my graphics pad, it doesn't see my modem, I can't navigate as fast as 98 or ME and the worst thing is that it doesn't work with some of the software my wife likes to use :frown: (I haven't told her this yet. I'm postponing my death to a little later.) And because it doesn't recognize the modem, how am I supposed to go online and activate the stupid OS????

ShawnD

Apr29-04, 07:05 PM

Artman

Apr30-04, 10:23 AM

1. Why did you buy a Celeron?
2. You'll probably need more ram. My computer uses 240mb when it's idle. Uses up to 700mb in games. Uses up to 900mb when ripping a DVD.
3. What kind of modem is it?
4. For that software, have you tried compatibility mode?

Once you actually do get that modem working, you'll be downloading updates for hours since you're on dialup. The updates after a fresh install are over 80mb.

1. I bought the Celeron because of the price and deal I got on the Motherboard, CPU, 8x AGP card, Fan and RAM (all for $149.00 after rebates. Less than the price of a 2.4 P4 CPU alone.) I don't mind being behind the market, it gives me room to upgrade in the future.

2. Yeah I know, but right now I only use about 100mb idle according to system monitor I have about 156 free. (I don't have a CD burner yet and I don't play too many games. sometimes the art projects I work on get a little large, but not more than 80mb or so.) It's funny, it seems to use less memory than Win ME does.

3. It's a DSI Digicom by Creative. I haven't looked online for a driver, but I still think the computer should detect that it is there. I haven't even gotten to the search for driver stage. I'm going to try it in a different PCI slot and see if that helps.

4. I did. It didn't help. It's Quattro Pro 7 and there is a known compatability issue with that particular program. :frown: If you have heard of any fixes or patches for that, let me know. :smile:

kronchev

May1-04, 01:52 PM

What company or companies are those?

Mushkin (http://www.mushkin.com) is supposed to make excellent RAM.

1) http://www.excaliberpc.com/ . i bought a guaranteed good 1700+ from them back in the day that was absolutly fantastic. i always regretted selling it :-/

2) Muskin is the best memory, hands down. I have a muskin longsleeve shirt cause im awesome like that :D however, due to the price its no more than a wet dream for me, really. not sure what ill go with since the market is getting too expensive ATM.

Trancid

May1-04, 04:12 PM

Ok, here are my specs. I'll do my two 'best' computers. First my laptop that I've got for school. The other one will I do when I'm behind it, someday....

Centrino 1.4 GHz
512 MB DDR
SoundMAX audiocard
Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME (graphic chip) 64MB shared
40 GB HD
DVD/CDRW combo (i think 40/12/10x)
4 Usb2.0
1 Gbit ethernetcard (dont worry, my connection to the internet is max. T3;)
11 MBit wireless
Optical mouse
Lion-battery

It works good enough for some of the older games like UT2k3 and most new games run on it too, but my university wants me to make homework on it :( and unfortunately it isn't really upgradable except for the ram-memory.

Patrick

Ps.
This laptop is almost a year old now, so there should be a lot of better laptops around nowadays

hitssquad

May3-04, 07:55 AM

A 1.4 GHz Banias is about as good as you are going to get.

The hard drive is upgradable to either 40 or 60 GB 7200 RPM, for a significant increase in overall system speed without an increase in power consumption or heat emissions. The 40 GB version goes for $153, shipping included, at newegg.com.

The 1.4 GHz Banias is upgradable to 1.5, 1.6, or 1.7 GHz. These CPU's are sold to individuals at the usual internet retailers. Possibly a Dothan could be used to replace the Banias (they are certainly pin compatible, and manufacturers will soon be dropping Dothans into the current Banias models they sell), but if it could it might require a BIOS update to make it work correctly.

TheBroManScott

May13-04, 08:42 PM

What are the specifications of your fastest home computer? I am curious to know what level is currently average for intelligent users (people that might use a computer for something other than email and websurfing).

I currently have a Celeron 1.1 ghz, 370 Motherboard, 256MB Ram, 32 MB PCI graphics.

As you can see mine is not cutting edge, so don't be afraid to list older technology (I have a Pentium 166 MMX laptop that works very well).

Hello all, I've been doing research the last few months because I need a new computer. The components I found below seem to be top of the line for speed and performance. The total cost for this system is just over $2 grand. I justify the cost as part of the birthday present I am giving myself. I am a computer enthusiast at heart and have lived with my existing AMD-K6 3D 500Mhz System with 192MB for too long and feel I deserve a new system. My extreme machince consists of the following:

Motherboard: Asus P4P 800 Deluxe
CPU: Intel CPU P4 (S-478) 800 FSB
Memory: OCZ PC-3200 DDR400 1024 MB Dual Channel (2x512)
Video Card: AIW 9800 Pro 128MB
Hard Drive: Western Digital 200 GB HD 150 SATA
Optical Device: LG DVD +/- RW Rewriter IDE
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech Wireless MX Duo
Case: Aspire X-Alien with 420 Power Supply
Operating System: Windows XP SP1

I needed a whole new system and feel that this will do just about anything I want now. It's main purpose is for digital multimedia first and gaming second. Anybody got ideas to improve upon this?: :biggrin:

Artman

May14-04, 07:41 AM

Hello all, I've been doing research the last few months because I need a new computer. The components I found below seem to be top of the line for speed and performance. The total cost for this system is just over $2 grand. I justify the cost as part of the birthday present I am giving myself. I am a computer enthusiast at heart and have lived with my existing AMD-K6 3D 500Mhz System with 192MB for too long and feel I deserve a new system. My extreme machince consists of the following:

Motherboard: Asus P4P 800 Deluxe
CPU: Intel CPU P4 (S-478) 800 FSB
Memory: OCZ PC-3200 DDR400 1024 MB Dual Channel (2x512)
Video Card: AIW 9800 Pro 128MB
Hard Drive: Western Digital 200 GB HD 150 SATA
Optical Device: LG DVD +/- RW Rewriter IDE
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech Wireless MX Duo
Case: Aspire X-Alien with 420 Power Supply
Operating System: Windows XP SP1

I needed a whole new system and feel that this will do just about anything I want now. It's main purpose is for digital multimedia first and gaming second. Anybody got ideas to improve upon this?: :biggrin:

Very nice. Top of the line stuff. The only thing I would suggest is a DVD burner. That should be a fantastic computer.

TheBroManScott

May14-04, 04:18 PM

Very nice. Top of the line stuff. The only thing I would suggest is a DVD burner. That should be a fantastic computer.

Thanks, actually I listed that under Optical device it the LG Multi Format drive for burning both DVD's and CD's.

Artman

May15-04, 09:44 AM

Thanks, actually I listed that under Optical device it the LG Multi Format drive for burning both DVD's and CD's.

Oops, missed that. Sounds great.

Dagenais

May23-04, 06:44 PM

Wow, there aren't many Mac users here...

Matt-235

May23-04, 10:57 PM

I'm still working on collecting all the parts for my new system, it will be complete this summer. Here are the specs for it:

ASRock K7S8XE Motherboard
AMD Athlon 2700+ (2.17 GHz)
640 MB DDR RAM (1x 512 MB, 1x 128 MB)*
Sound Blaster Audigy ES
AOpen nVidia GeForce 4 MX440*
Samsung 120GB 7200rpm HD*
Samsung 16X DVD-ROM*
Sony 52z/24x/52x CD-RW
Sony Floppy Drive, Black - hoo-ahh*
ViewSonic G90fb 19" Flat CRT Monitor
Logitech Z-5300 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers*
Logitech Cordless Elite Duo Keyboard/Mouse

The asterisked things are things I have yet to get, and are being substitued with
256 MB DDR RAM (2x 128 MB)
MSI nVidia GeForce 2 MX400
Western Digital 60GB HD
Creative +40x? CD-ROM
Beige Floppy Drive
4W of Generic Speakers

And when I get the rest of the components, those will all be going back in the machine they were in before, and I'll probably put Linux on there and have a happy fun server/toy. Don't remember the motherboard specs on it, but it's got a 1.4GHz AMD CPU in it.

TALewis

May23-04, 11:15 PM

I have some slightly faster machines, but my favorite is the following:

Pentium II, 400 MHz
128 MB RAM
4 GB HD
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420

Running Debian GNU/Linux

I surf, I code, I play with perl and php and apache and mysql, I write technical papers in LaTeX for college. Fast and stable. It's amazing what you can do on old hardware with Linux.

When you buy a new computer, make sure your old one ends up with someone who'll appreciate it.

Edit: Oh, I forgot about my little fruity companion, the iBook:

500 MHz G3
256 MB RAM
10 GB HD

The iBook is great too, but the Linux PC is better because it's all free.

Miles

Jun22-04, 05:24 AM

Ohhhh I always love a computer spec thread

P4 3.0, 800 FSB, 512 L2 Cache with HT
1 Gig PC 4000 Kingston Ram
GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
Abit IC7 MAX3 motherboard
160 Gig Hardrive seagate
52/32/52 CD-RW

The motherboard has intergrated sound and network card which are great. I dont have a modem since I have DSL. :biggrin:

TenNen

Jun22-04, 10:01 AM

Artman

Jun22-04, 10:04 AM

Awesome computer Miles.

My new computer I just built has integrated audio and network. I think these two are good items to have built into the motherboard.

I also just setup a wireless network using my integrated network interface as my router connection.

Anttech

Jun25-04, 07:51 AM

D800 Laptop
1GB RAM
Centrino WIFI Pm 1.7
60Gig HD (Plus a 50Gig Lacey USB 2 external HD)
WideScreen NVIDIA GeForce4 4200 64MB on-Board
DVD/CD on board burner
All provided by my lovely company :-)

Artman

Jun25-04, 09:15 AM

Nice laptop Anttech. How do you like the external HD?

Anttech

Jun25-04, 09:19 AM

Works good for me, would recommend one... USB2 sometime behaves funny with XP... (ie sometimes reinstalls itself when I plug it in) but over all very good :-D

sixian

Jun26-04, 11:11 AM

Athlon 2800+ Barton

sixian

Jun26-04, 11:13 AM

whoops sorry
Athlon 2800+ Barton
512 Corsair 3200
Radeon 9700 Pro 128megs ram
Asus A7n8X deluxe

Artman

Jun28-04, 09:57 AM

Works good for me, would recommend one... USB2 sometime behaves funny with XP... (ie sometimes reinstalls itself when I plug it in) but over all very good :-D

I've noticed this with other XP USB devices (a printer I have). I wonder why it does that?

lala_alak

Jul1-04, 01:19 AM

AMD Athlon 2500+(i think freq. is around 2.4GHz),
Asus Motherboard,
1GB DDR,
GeForce4 MMX AGP,
Nvidia Sound Blaster.

Artman

Jul1-04, 07:34 AM

Athlon 2800+ Barton
512 Corsair 3200
Radeon 9700 Pro 128megs ram
Asus A7n8X deluxe

Some nice components in here. Did you build this sixian?

AMD Athlon 2500+(i think freq. is around 2.4GHz),
Asus Motherboard,
1GB DDR,
GeForce4 MMX AGP,
Nvidia Sound Blaster.

Very nice. Another Asus Mobo. Did you build your system lala_alak?

graphic7

Jul1-04, 08:43 AM

Main workstation:
Dual 866mhz P3 Xeon /w 512kb cache
512mb RDRAM
4 9GB 10000RPM Cheetah SCSI Hard Drives
Matrox GD450
FreeBSD 4.10

Workstation 2:
1.4ghz AMD Athlon Thunderbird
512mb PC133 SDRAM
32mb Nvidia GeForce2
Iwill KK266-R (?) Motherboard
2 80gb 7200RPM Hard Drives
FreeBSD 4.10

Workstation 3:
SGI Octane (not 2)
180mhz R10000
256mb RAM (propiertary RAM, not sure what kind)
SI Graphics Card (no texture memory)
2 9GB 10000RPM Seagate SCSI Drives
Irix 6.5.15

Laptop 1:
864mhz G4 Titanium Powerbook
Mac OS X 10.1
512mb DDR
32mb ATI Mobility
30GB 5400RPM Hard Drive

Laptop 2:
Dell Inspirion 7200 (?)
64mb RAM
6gb Hard drive
8mb ATI Mobility
NetBSD

Server 1 (DNS, Samba, etc)
Dual Pentium Pro 200mhz /w 1mb cache per each
256mb ram
dual 4gb SCSI drives (not sure of what the RPM or brand is)
(no video card, use a serial terminal :-) )
FreeBSD 4.10

Server 2: Mail, Routing, Firewall
266mhz Cyrix (not sure of what the exact model is, SSE, though)
128mb SDRAM
2 8GB IDE Hard Drives
S3 Virge 8mb (might be 4mb)
FreeBSD 4.10

POS Box #1: Sun Sparcstation 2
64mb ram
40mhz Sparc (32-bit) Processor
2gb Seagate SCSI HD
2mb (?) Video "Buffer" card (what Sun used to call their Graphics cards)
NetBSD

POS Box #2: Sun Sparcstation 5
110mhz Sparc (32-bit)
128mb RAM
4GB Seagate SCSI HD
Solaris 7

Sparcstation 2 and 5 have TGFX Framebuffer Cards (I believe)

Artman

Jul1-04, 01:29 PM

graphic7 is that list all home PCs?! I thought I had a lot with 4 working PCs! That main workstation sounds sweet. Are you a computer tech?

graphic7

Jul1-04, 02:55 PM

They all are my home computers. I've actually bought most of them off Ebay.

Prices:

Sparcstations: < $100
SGI: $600 (came with a 21" SGI monitor)
Workstations: ~ $1500 (for both)
Powerbook: $2500
Dell Laptop: $2500

As you can see, the most I've paid is for the laptops.

I was a Unix Admin up until last year (need a job while I'm in college). Till that point, I was going to be major in Computer Science. Took up math, now I'm a full-time physics major. :D

vladimir69

Jul4-04, 01:31 AM

Asus P4P800-E-Deluxe
intel p4 3.0ghz prescott
1gb PC3200 DDR400 RAM
ati radeon 9800xt with 256mb memory
74 GB Western Digital 10000RPM 8mb cache / buffer

7590

Jul4-04, 08:26 PM

So far I this is my current setup, only 2 computers for now.

Computer #1

Amd XP 2600+ 333MHz
Asus A7N8X MB 400MHz
512 MB 333MHz
Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 256MB
Western Digital 200G IDE
Maxtor 120G SATA
Western Digital 200G SATA
LG DVDRAM GSA-4082B
Pioneer DVD-ROM 16X
nForce Sound Card
MSI USB2 TV Capture Card
ATX 400W Power Supply
USB Track Ball
PS2 Keyboard
Digital 17" Monitor
Samtron 17" 76V Monitor

Power usage for ATX Tower when idle 120 watts (No power saving mode), Digital Monitor 110 Watts, Samtron Monitor 60 Watts

Computer #2

Amd XP 2100+ 333MHZ
Asus A7V333 MB
512 MB 333MHz
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB
Western Digital 80G IDE
Western Digital 200G IDE
LG DVD (16X) / CDRW (32x/10x/40x) IDE
CMI8738/C3SX PCI Sound card Intergrated
ATI TV Capture Card PCI Value
ATX 300W Power Supply
PS2 Mouse
PS2 Keykoard
Samsung 17" Monitor

Also power usage for ATX Tower idle 130 watts (No power saving mode), Samsung Monitor 50 Watts

lala_alak

Jul6-04, 01:49 AM

Well its not a big deal of work to assemble a comp once you have the components.Yes I did build it myself.

Artman

Jul6-04, 08:13 AM

Well its not a big deal of work to assemble a comp once you have the components.Yes I did build it myself.

You're right. I just assembled my first complete system about 2 months ago. I was pretty pleased how easy it was.

vladimir69, very nice system.

7590, nice pair of AMDs. I don't see network cards, are they networked?

lala_alak

Jul7-04, 05:21 AM

You're right. I just assembled my first complete system about 2 months ago. I was pretty pleased how easy it was.

vladimir69, very nice system.

7590, nice pair of AMDs. I don't see network cards, are they networked?

Just wanted to ask,which is the best video accel chipset availaible at your place and the ruf price of it,wud be gr8ful.

Artman

Jul7-04, 08:14 AM

Just wanted to ask,which is the best video accel chipset availaible at your place and the ruf price of it,wud be gr8ful.

I'm not a big gamer, however, I do 2d computer art sometimes. When I picked out my components, I picked a combo deal that included an 8x AGP card with the nVidia GeForce MX440 chipset. It is old technology, but is more than adequate for my graphics needs. There are a lot better ones out there, for a lot more money. One like mine goes for about $30-$70. Top of the line stuff is about $250 - $400.

The one that vladimir69 has, ati radeon 9800xt with 256mb memory, or 7590's, Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 256MB both look pretty current.

Some others here may have a better handle on the current state of the art in video. This would be a good topic for a new thread.

Maxwell

Jul22-04, 11:53 PM

AMD Athlon 1800 (Roughly 1.5 ghz)
1 GB of RAM
2 80 gb HD's
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb graphics card

I play a lot of games. I could use a faster speed of RAM (currently PC2100).

Update - I bought a 200gb Seagate external HD. Works great. :smile:

Artman

Jul27-04, 09:36 AM

Wow, 200 gb! I remember when a big HD was 10 mb.

I have an update as well, I added 512 mb of Kingston 333 DDR RAM and a Maddog Combo 52-24-52 16DVD player CDRW. Got a great deal on the RAM and the burner. The RAM was marked $169.00 it was on sale for $69.00 with a $20.00 rebate! I couldn't leave it there for that. the burner was $59.00 and also had a $20.00 rebate. :smile: I put them in later that afternoon and they are both working great!

almohandes

Jul30-04, 09:59 PM

I have 3:
- one i built my self:
amd athlon xp 2000
40gb 7200rpm
k7 motherboard, 256 mb ram: pc3200
radeon 9800 64mb DDR
15" monitor
cdrw drive and cdrom drive

and one compaq:
celeron 2.6GHz
40gb 5200rpm
intel xtreme graphics
512 mb ram:DDR 400
17" monitor

and one hp laptop:
P4 2.8ghz
radeon 7000 IGP
40 GB
512 mb ram
15"

and planning to build a new one :
*xaser 3 with 64bit CPU, *intel motherboard, *9800 Graphics and 80 GB HDD +creative modem.

- the ones with this (*) infront i've got.

Artman

Aug1-04, 04:20 PM

I have 3:
- one i built my self:
amd athlon xp 2000
40gb 7200rpm
k7 motherboard, 256 mb ram: pc3200
radeon 9800 64mb DDR
15" monitor
cdrw drive and cdrom drive

Very nice. Are you planning on networking them?

megashawn

Aug2-04, 04:53 PM

Artman

Aug3-04, 08:40 AM

My home pc is

AMD XP 1800 (1.53ghz)
Via Kt333 mb
512mb ram
ATI Radeon 9800 (Forget the details, I think 128mb)
Hercules XP Game theater (sound card, pretty sweet, takes load off main cpu for music and audio)
Linksys WMP54G wireless adapter, using a Dlink 802.11G wireless router
KDS 17" True Flat CRT (wal mart special)
80gb Maxtor
30gb maxtor
6 speaker w/sub surround sound

This sounds pretty good Megashawn. I found that an add-on sound card increased my overall system performance on my old PC, like you said it took some load off the CPU. It really punched up the sound over the integrated card as well.

alexkerhead

Aug24-04, 08:58 PM

I am very interested in many thing, among them are computers, and physics..

I am just curious to see what kind of machines you are running.
I am currently running..

Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz @3.402GHz
1024MB PC2700 DDR333 Viking Memory
Asus P4G8X Motherboard
ATi Radeon 9600Pro 128MB
60GB Seagate ata-133 HDD 8MB
40GB Western Digital ata-100 HDD 2MB
40x24x48 CD-RW
16x40 DVD-ROM
Eagle All Aluminum case with electric sliding front door..
17" KDS flat screen monitor(CRT)
Cooler Master Jet4 Vertical Blower

That is my latest PC I have built out of all of my 9 PCs..

Please tell me and the others what you are running for a Computer.. :cool:

motai

Aug24-04, 09:25 PM

Slightly older system compared to the top-of-the-line computers:

AMD Thunderbird 1 GHz
640 Meg RAM
ATI Radeon 8500 LE 128 Meg
120 Gigabyte Maxtor 5700 RPM HD
Memorex 40x12x48 CD-Rewritable
Generic 52x CD-ROM drive
Mad Dog PCI Sound Card
Creative Modem Blaster v.90 PCI Modem
Basic Tower Case
17" MAG Innovision 770FS CRT Monitor

alexkerhead

Aug24-04, 09:32 PM

nice classic system, I run one of those that a brought to my school, to put in my office there..
Mine only has 512MB ram tho..
Those TBs still kick some arse..

hitssquad

Aug25-04, 02:03 AM

I am just curious to see what kind of machines you are running.Then you may want to check out the Computer system curious question (http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=16860) thread.

Marijn

Aug25-04, 06:44 AM

Desktop:
P4 2Ghz
2048mb DDR400
1*40G maxtor 5600rpm
1*120G maxtor 7200rpm 8mb cach
1*external 400G maxtor.
ATI Raedon 9600 256Mb
19inch crt

new Mobo and CPU un their way.
when they arrive its the ultimate home GIS machine (and its really nice for games :biggrin: )

Laptop:
Promedion D470V
P4 3.2 Ghz
ATI MP10-P (9600pro) 128Mb
1024Mb memory
40Gb 7200rpm (dunno the brand atm, srry).

alexkerhead

Aug25-04, 07:31 AM

So you(hittssquad) have

Dell 4100 laptop. 1.066 MHz PIII Tualatin Celeron (256 KB backside cache). 1 GB RAM at 133 MHz. 18.6 GB 4200-RPM 2.5" 2-platter hard drive. ATI display adapter (16 MB non-shared video RAM). 14" XGA (1024 x 768) screen. Synaptics trackpad

hitssquad

Aug25-04, 07:40 PM

So you(hittssquad) have
Synaptics trackpadYeah. From the reviews, I'm afraid of the ALPS trackpads that are replacing the Synaptics trackpads on most of the newer laptops.

dekoi

Aug30-04, 10:21 PM

I am currently using a 1.72 Ghz Pentium 4 with 1024mb DDR SDRAM 133mhz, sitting on a P4B533 Asus Motherboard, with an overclocked GeForce 4 Ti4400 (300MHZ Core, 600MHz Memory),

with JET4 Heatsink and 3 80mm fans (w/ fan control for both).

My case temperature is an average of about 24 degrees on full rpm load, and 29 degrees CPU Temperature.

---

If you are looking for the optimum level PC for home and game use:

Athlon 64+ 3800 CPU (Socket 939)
w/ compatible Mobo (e.g. ASUS A8V Deluxe)
AGP VC: X800 PRO 256MB
etc. (sound card, monitor, keyboard, mouse, webcam, speakers)

Which would come out to be about 1500 dollars for the first three items. Good luck :)

Artman

Sep16-04, 09:35 AM

I just placed an order for a system for a small business on a small budget. I got them a P4 2.4HT, 800FSB, ASUS P4P800-VM Mobo with built in Video, Audio, LAN, and SATA, Windows XP home ed. with CD and COA, ATX case, CD-RW 52-24-52, 256 MB DDR 400, 80 gig Samsung HD, 17 inch CRT monitor, keyboard, scroll mouse and speakers, Lifetime Tech Support, and assembly with 1 year warranty, all for $707.00 delivered. Not too bad huh!

This should work pretty good for creating PDF files, doing some e-filing and word processing, maybe some bookkeeping.